Weather: High pressure to bring in the sunshine

High pressure will bring sunshine to most parts of the country. Photo / Duncan Brown

After weeks of deluge and drenching, it's finally some good news on the weather front.

MetService Meteorologist Angus Hines says a high over the Tasman Sea will mean a change to a much more settled conditions over most of the country this week.

Hines said Kiwis could expect the settled weather to persist into Anzac weekend.

"This will be a welcome relief as the clean-up from Cyclone Cook continues," Hines says.

"A weak to moderate southwest flow affects New Zealand, and all of the major centres will see some isolated showers at times through the week, but in general the weather will much more mundane than what we had last week."

Plenty of sunshine for most places is in the forecast, amidst brief showers and cloudy periods.

"Temperatures across the country will be noticeably cooler this week, as the winds turn to the south and the days get shorter," Hines added.

Philip Duncan of WeatherWatch said the entire North and South Islands were now wetter than average, with the exception of Southland.

"New Zealand has been hit by three significant wet events in the past six weeks, with each event bringing one to three months worth of rain in just a few days for some areas," he said.

But Duncan said the high pressure will bring a pattern of drier, sunnier weather.

"It's not perfectly dry, being on the outskirts of the centre of the high means there may be a few coastal showers here and there but compared to the first half of April the next week ahead looks much drier and sunnier," he said.

Duncan said the waterways across New Zealand will "drain more than they gain".

For this week, WeatherWatch is forecasting at least 80 per cent of the country to be mainly dry and sunny.

Weather forecast

Auckland

Wednesday: Few showers clearing, then fine spells. Light winds. 21C/14C

Thursday: Few early showers, then fine spells. Winds turning southeasterly. 20C/12C

Friday: Cloudy periods and few showers. Easterly breezes dying out. 19C/12C

Hamilton

Wednesday: Fine spells. Southwesterly develops in the afternoon. 19C/8C

Thursday: Some morning cloud then mainly fine. Light winds. 20C/7C

Friday: Fine with light winds. 19C/7C

Wellington

Wednesday: Fine spells, chance of afternoon shower. 16C/9C

Thursday: Mostly cloudy, a few showers. Southerlies strong for a time. 14C/10C

Friday: Chance of early shower then becoming fine. Winds turn northerly. 15C/11C

Christchurch

Wednesday: Morning cloud clearing to mainly fine. 19C/18C

Thursday: Cloudy period, chance of a morning shower. Southwesterlies easing. 15C/5C

Friday: Cloudy periods, then fine. Northeast breezes. 17C/6C

(source: MetService)